Why Bars on the Bund Blow
I know why I can't stand them - but do you? Someone (a fan of said bars) told me that it was called the 'Hipster Syndrome', in that, we hate that which we're not a part of. I can assure you this is not the case when it comes to Little Italy (Bar Rouge) and Attack-a (Attica).
They simply have no soul. They're for 'Scenesters' of the worst kind, those without one.
I'm not saying 'don't go to nice places', there are plenty of spots that include a cool vibe with an unpretentious crowd, but please...take advantage of the little loop thing being torn down and have your cab driver take you somewhere else this weekend.
It's for your own good.
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I can't recommend someplace 'other' than the Bund in the same fashion that I could, say, suggest Bali if you like Malibu. The Bund Bars aren't so much bars but overpriced den's of tasteless music and people. I can understand tourists going there for one big night and a view of Pudong, but locals? Making it a stop on every weekend venue? Euro has forever been the ruin of bars, take a look at Ministry of Sound now in London, it's gone to shit. Why? Catering to people who will only go once in their life. There's a bar, not far from anyone in Shanghai who serve up the meanest cocktails you'll ever have. They take pride in it. They know your drink even though the place is packed nightly. How was this place found? By finding one's niche in Shanghai. People that frequent Bund bars every weekend are too wrapped up in their Facebook poses to ever venture out of the first bar they were ever taken to - yet, moan about it on Sunday afternoons in the same way a group of girls complain about all the 'inappropriate touching' at Dragon Club.
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whats wrong with Glamour bar??
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Glamour Bar...to be honest, is the most tolerable of the group. Maybe because it's a higher caliber of people, maybe because the dancing area is only there in the front right. Sure, it's pink, but they actually bring in decent artists from time-to-time on Sunday's. It's still overpriced, but even then they're strong drinks. Lesser of all the evils, in my opinion.
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What about Atanu or I heart Shanghai? Casperxx and I are going to keep egging you on until we find a new place off the Bund ;-) Sorry Casperxx, you may also not consider yourself a Bund fan, but I just like poking holes. It seems to me that there are four types of nightlife in Shanghai: 1. The Bund clubbing 2. Former French Concession binge drinking 3. Cheap beer drinking and live music at Logo/Live/Yuyingtang 4. Fine dining
What am I missing?
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Ok - I (Heart) Shanghai is NOT a Bund Bar, despite being on the Bund. They have a male pole dancer and let the crowd bartend for godssakes. I don't know enough about Atanu to comment.
You're missing places like El Cubano in Gubei! Time Passage near Hua Shan! The Hut in Yongjia! C------------ Bar, perhaps the best in Shanghai. Sake at Hiro's in Tai Kang Lu, a sad version of 'Cheers' at Harley's, the list goes on and on and on. Tell ya what, someone make a list of all said places, take it to one of the aforementioned Bund Bars and see how many people know what you're talking about.
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If I were to go to a bar on the bund alone (which I would never do, by the way), I wouldn't run into any of my friends...but if I decided to go to a place like The Hut, Time Passage, Logo, or C's, I would. Or if went to Hiro's, Mokko's (Wuding Lu) or Avenue (Wuning Lu), it wouldn't even matter that I didn't go with friends or run into friends because the owners/bartenders are really cool and totally know my name!
It's not even what bund bars are, but what they aren't that makes them suck.
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People always are looking for the next new thing...and new things open all the time in Shanghai (with gimmicks and the traffic of people attracted to that kinda stuff) and close down because most of the time, one has to lower one's expectations to tolerate it. Whatever happened to appreciating a town for what it is? Instead of this expat scenester chase which is never NEVER pretty to look at...wouldn't it be more interesting and worthwhile to find a local crawl and make it your own? A scene where I am the scene, and not a place that's trying to sell one to me? I have to be honest: If I ever find one of these places, I wouldn't just tell anyone about it...i would hate for my scene to be ruined, the drinks watered down, the food overpriced, barely meeting any standard, and the general ambiance destroyed by loud american interns. Someone please do a block party. a rooftop soiree. better door policies. or take it to the streets. No other city of Shanghai's romance let's you run around sipping a bottle of baijiu in one hand and a nice joint in the other.
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I couldn't agree more - except that didn't we all come to Shanghai to be a part of something? Doesn't that, in itself, become a scene of sorts?
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i agree with you. the dreams, anticipation and etc. are very inspired in Shanghai... but I really do not think at the end of the day most of us are here to scene chase...or enough to keep big places at the Bund open. Maybe it's a question of integration. I have been to the satellite bars next to business hotels with lonely western men and the girls from the wrong side of the tracks trying to make some rmb. I also have been to places catering to wealthy makers/shakers from the greater sinosphere jamming to bad taiwanese pop music...yuck. It would just be nice to go to a place where the people that actually live and make shanghai what is could get together and have fun in shanghai, regardless of where they are from or what they do for a living: that's called culture. More times than not, a constant in a night scene or just in the new Shanghai in general is the scene of money, a new leisure class, the burgeoning and hungry bourgeois. Shanghai in itself is chasing a scene of being part of the worldclass cities like nyc, paris, tokyo, etc. A lot of the new businesses want to cater to the quick buck and not cater to a singular, localised culture under a pretense of catching up, keeping up the Jones's. So if the businesses aren't doing it, the costs aren't allowing it, the convenience lacking, and maybe most "dont get it"...i mean my position is this: it's my money, my time, my life to have a good time, therefore my responsibility to make it happen. Shanghai has great venues, spaces, interesting people, music, local culture, and a dynamic quality of what's next? This may be a very capitalist, western way of seeing things, but I do feel more people need to think outside of the box. I also blame those lame shows from taiwan and sex and the city which gives people the wrong idea of what's cosmopolitan, cool, tolerable, or standard.
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Well, isn't Shanghai big enough for the Bund scenes and the "out of the box" scenes you're talking about? I mean, if we follow the capitalist bent, resources are allocated based on demand shaped by individual self-interest and the consumer habits of economic actors (namely, us). If the Bund bars exist, there is a demand for this both amongst those in and out of town for a short time and the regulars who frequent the Bund regularly. As you've all pointed out, there are plenty of other great bars out there, and if you're not into the Bund scene, you don't have to go. Not everyone is a live music junkie. All bars cater to a particular demographic or niche market in some respect or another. Is not the key element here choice? You do choose where to go and where to spend your money. You are also free to help improve, grow and shape the burgeoning nightlife scene in Shanghai by filling in holes with deck parties, rooftop soirees, etc. But go to any city and you will find the swanky bars, the seedy bars, the live music, etc. We can complain all we want about people chasing fads, being materialistic, capitalist and so on but you can't blame the venues for capitalizing on this. And while you're not interested in what the Bund crowd is interested in, they are equally perhaps not interested in our tastes. Isn't the beauty of a scene in its entirety hidden in its diversity (and / or growing diversity)???
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It's not that I'm not interested in what the Bund crowd is interested in - it's that they're not interested in anything!
Muso's have music. Pub's have an older social crowd. Mao/Dragon give people one last chance. Dives have hipsters. Bund has....what? Loud horribly mixed music? The bar is put on fire? A lot of people drinking champagne?
I want to find out, from a Bund fan (which are still noticeably absent from this discussion) what it has to offer.
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I agree with tristamarie totally. I will also stress I HATE live music and really really really can't stand hipsters.
As for Bund fans, I am sure they have their reasons. It's easy. it's close to major hotels. it's a center. English is spoken widely. The girls are done up. The music is familiar. You can't really blame these bars/clubs for providing for such an obvious demand. Shanghai has plenty of transients that are fortunate to have the Bund right there.
This discussion is becoming less about the Bund and more about the people who patronize it. Why is there such a big and profitable demand for it? I wouldn't call the Bund "swanky", but I can see how an out of towner would feel glamorous, hip, and cosmo being there. Shanghai kinda has that in its air when you're not choking on its smog. I mean, I drink champagne regularly, practically out of the bottle on my street or on the metro. If it were say malt liquor or cheap baijiu out of the bottle, then I would be a simple redneck. The point is its champagne, not malt liquor or something from a gutter. The Bund offers this to any joe-schmo or plain jane on a working holiday. Also, things that glitter and shine not only impresses infants or chimpanzees, but grown educated men as well. The Bund caters at a mass, easiest, most obvious form. You can't blame them. As for what I really think high-rolling swank is in Shanghai: penthouse in an overpriced hotel with naughty Beijing party officials and worldclass escorts from Russia. Now that's something hardly any of us are interested in, probably never get the chance or, better yet, choice to be a part of. Also some insight: it's my guess that people who go to the Bund get laid a lot more than any pensive talk talk talk esoteric tasting artsy hipster. Not everyone can whine about a band or a book and still remain cute enough to get down and dirty.
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Who 'hates' live music? I mean, I've heard people say 'not really my thing', but 'hate'?
Sorry to go off-topic...
But hate? C'mon.
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hahahaha.... yeah..i really can't stand it. Maybe its years and years of going to shows or maybe because I have lost most of my hearing....watching a band or a dj doesnt do it for me...unless there is something glittering or shining or lasering...i'd rather sit through an opera.
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Now you're starting to sound like a hipster!
Anyway, back to the point - should I be surprised that no fans of the Bund have chimed in? I really think it's because they simply don't care to what's going on in the city around them.
Is it safe to say they operate more out of a fear they might miss something at the bar they always go to with the people they always see than being cowardly about taking a cab to, say, Time Passage?
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So its agreed there is nothing 'hip' about the Bund. But what actually surprises me is why a business operator would actually choose overpriced rents and high profile locations that is in the crosshairs of every lifestyle critic, waiting to lay their teeth into the imminent failure of the next den of ostentatiousness with firecrackers in the champagne bucket. [BTW - next time u get one of these ice bucket crackers - turn the cracker upside down into the water and watch the smoke 'blow' out the bar..hehe..its ike a crazy dry ice trick]
And as for the Glamour Bar, well it may be expensive, but the service is always good and the cocktails thoughtfully devised and well delivered. Unlike an atorciously unpalatable ginger concoction i had at Lounge 18.
At the end of the day, if you are looking for a scene, then you got your own problems to work out. Why not just grab some friends and go somewhere and enjoy each others company. You are in Shanghai, China, not NYC London or Paris. So get into the culture...got to KTV. Go and drink Baijiu. Hang out wth the wide boys at Babyface. or as some have said here find your own local and enjoy the familiarity. By the time you read about a scene on this website, then you're too late!
keep chasing the dragon....
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evo - very well put (except that reading about scene's on this website mean you're too late, I like to think this, along with my column, help launch all things awesome).
I just really want to hear from someone who likes the Bund, c'mon - we know people who go read City Weekend if for no other reason than to scan the weekend party pics...
Perhaps I'll change the header to:
Why Do You Go To The Bund?
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i like to pay 10 kuai and get my photo taken with Poodong in the background.
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i'm so hip my tastes have come full circle...give me the Bund...sans irony!!!
I noticed that a lot of people who go to the more mainstream places in Shanghai who are expat tend to be college educated and are here for work or an internship...it could be chasing their youth rather than a dragon, or the youth they never got to have or the dragon they never got to ride or tame...I did notice that...because impressive is the last thing that comes to mind when i see this in action. I took mandarin classes in the weird hotel complex with marc jacobs and starbucks downstairs and that even weirder pizza joint (it was kinda fabulous in its excess...but also a bit trite in its obvious tackiness) anyway, many of my classmates were all about the scene on the Bund. They all liked to go there because they got to see girls who were from or similar to the ones in their respective home countries wilding out, like halloween: an excuse to act slutty...and if they didnt put out, there was always some status/social climbing mobility inclined Shanghainese stunner who put the hometown gals to shame. I didn't get it because it seemed like such hassle; why not just screw your classmate? your mandarin teacher? the receptionist? the money girl on the corner? you're co-worker? the tibetan street vendor (who by the way have some of the most amazing bone structure on this planet)...serioulsy...why not?...and I do not think its because they are scared of getting AIDS.
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Where do you recommend if not the Bund? Would you vilify other trendy spots/bars/clubs in other parts of world? Just because they're European, electronic or hip-hop focused why does that mean they are "bad"? What are those "scenesters" missing?